On Earthquakes

We’ve been here just a few hours short of a week now. It feels like much longer. I still feel earthquakes, so periodically it’s as if I have dizzy spells. Taiwanese people don’t give earthquakes much more than a passing thought- even the larger ones they just brace themselves then move on. One of my trainers said he always looks to see if something (such as curtains) are slightly moving to make sure it’s a quake and not just a dizzy spell. Seeing as I don’t recall having dizzy spells back in Canada, and that Taiwan has minor earthquakes frequently, I’m pretty positive my moments of dizziness are from the quakes. I can also feel taller buildings sway, which makes me wonder if sitting on a plane for so many hours messed with my inner ear. Any doctors out there know if this is possible??

There are 42 people in my training group, I believe, from all over the globe. There are about five Canadians, a huge amount of Americans, a couple South Africans, some Brits and a few people who consider multiple places their home. There are few people I’m a little unsure of, but for the most part we all seem to get along. I’ve even made a few great friends!! A couple of them are staying in Taipei, and two of them are moving South like I am. I’ll be about a ½ ride away from Nate and Nikki, and about an hour and half (on the high speed train) from Matt and Mahogany. I’m not sure how far away Linda’s placement is yet.

Training is pretty much exhausting. We start at 9 am and usually go to 6 pm. It’s a lot of information to cram into a very short period of time, and most of us (if not all!) feel slightly overwhelmed- mostly because it’s like being back in uni and having one too many lectures. I do, however, appreciate the fact that they are at least trying to teach us something before they send us into the classrooms- for our sakes and the kids’. Most people have little to no teaching experience, and those that do have either taught in a foreign country or, like me, taught at camps or tutored. So it’s a really big deal, the stuff they’re teaching us. But sometimes it’s just hard.

I had one of my first culture shock moment today. One of our trainers was leading us in ‘Skinamarink’ and did the ‘skinamarink’ hand action wrong. By the end of the song I was so frustrated I wanted to throw a tantrum. Then the final bit played and I realized it wasn’t even a Sharon, Lois and Brahm, and I was just done. It’s like I had one semblance of normalcy and they just threw it completely out the window, never to be seen or heard from again. I get it, it’s a little thing, and to most people a completely unimportant, irrelevant thing. But it just seemed so huge to me, I didn’t even know what to do about it. A couple of my classmates could tell I was freaking out a bit, and I did explain the hand action thing to them, but the other part was that my trainer reminds me of someone I went to school with- someone I don’t know if I could actually handle teaching me. I’m sure my trainer isn’t like him at all, but it was enough to kind of push me over the edge. The fact that I’m still angry about it annoys me immensely, but I guess it’s just one thing I need to take in stride.